


The Case of the Strange Shapes

by shimmerwings



Category: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Detectives, Farah Black is awesome, Gen, Inktober 2019, M/M, Workplace Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-09
Updated: 2019-12-09
Packaged: 2021-02-17 23:23:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21701419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shimmerwings/pseuds/shimmerwings
Summary: They catch a break in a case.
Relationships: Silas Dengdamor/Prince Panto Trost
Kudos: 8





	The Case of the Strange Shapes

**Author's Note:**

> I like to think Bart is off-screen working at the Medical Examiner's Office, being uncomfortably good at figuring out the weird ways people died. 
> 
> Inktober Prompt: Pattern

“Trost, Brotzman!” Farah Black called out as she poked her head into the office. Her usually slightly anxious face was lit up with a smile. “I've got something! Get everyone and meet me in the war room in, uh, five? Yeah, five minutes should be good.”

Panto Trost exchanged intrigued looks with his partner as Farah left. There was a smile growing on Todd's face as he looked down at the long list of phone numbers he'd been slogging through just moments before. “God I hope this means I can stop calling every Suzanne in the city,” he said, throwing down a pencil and ruffling his already ruffled hair.

“If it doesn't, I'll trade you for tracking down every purchase of a 'Girl Power' sweatshirt,” Panto offered. He pushed back from his own desk with a groan, twisting so that every vertebrae gave a satisfying pop. Desks at police stations weren't known for being especially comfortable, but it was worse when you were taller than average and had to practically sit sideways for your legs to fit.

Todd laughed while making a warding gesture. “No way, man. I'll keep the phone calls.” He pointedly picked up the receiver of his phone. “See, I'm gonna call Dirk right now–”

Dirk Gently chose that moment to trip into the room before flailing and righting himself. He smoothed his wildly printed shirt down with a disgruntled air as Todd shook his head and put the receiver down. “Someone should _really_ look into the evenness of the floors in this area,” Dirk said before making one of his lightning fast changes of subject. “Also, I just had the urge to talk to Farah, has anyone seen her recently?”

“I don't know how you do it,” Todd said with a resigned tone. By now Panto had (mostly) resigned himself to Dirk's odd hunches, but Todd still tried to find rational explanations. “Farah wants us to meet her in the conference room in a few. She said she found something.”

“Who found something?” Another voice came from the hallway behind Dirk. Panto found himself smiling foolishly in response and had to force it down to something reasonable as Silas Dengdamor, the last member of their task force, entered the room. He was as neatly put together as always, his dark beard closely trimmed and clothes pressed, but even he was showing signs of the long hours with dark circles under large brown eyes. Although, in Panto's totally unbiased opinion, Silas was still the loveliest person in the building.

Todd threw his hands in the air. “Are you becoming psychic now too?”

Dirk opened his mouth, presumably to start his 'Not psychic' speech, but Silas cut it off with a crooked smile. “No, I saw Dirk going somewhere like he was on a mission and I thought it was best if I followed. I heard you say someone found something?”

“Apparently Farah wants to show us something in the conference room,” Dirk filled him in excitedly.

Silas's eyes flicked to Panto for confirmation, who nodded. “We were just coming to get you.”

“Great!” Silas beamed. Panto cleared his throat as his heart did a little flip-flop in his chest.

“Oh, good, you're just in time,” Farah said distractedly as their motley group trouped into the conference room and settled themselves into the mismatched array of chairs. She was hovering over her laptop, which was hooked up to the projector. A map of the state was showing on the dingy projection screen, with several areas circled in red. Eyes narrowing in concentration, Panto tried to determine what the areas corresponded to, but he came up short.

“So,” Dirk said, propping both elbows on the table and resting his chin in his hands, “I hear you have new information. I'm dying to hear all the details.”

“Those circled areas,” Silas said suddenly. “They correspond to mines, don't they?”

Farah gave Silas a bright smile. “That's right! I forgot your family has some connections to the industry.”

Silas shrugged self-deprecatingly. “I recognized the name of one town because my mother considers them a rival. I took an educated guess on the others.”

“What do mines have to do with our murders?” Todd asked with a raised eyebrow. “So far all of our victims have been suburban stay-at-home moms. None of their husbands or immediate relatives work in the mining industry.”

“That's because,” Farah said, “it's where our _suspect_ works.”

Panto sat up straight at the same time everyone else did. “Suspect?” he said. “We have a suspect now?”

Farah bounced on her toes. “We do!” she said. “I wouldn't have made the connection, but one of the guys in the Robbery division was talking about a break-in a few weeks ago at the mine near Dayton. They were puzzled because there's been a pattern of thefts at mines lately, but this was a break-in without anything obvious being stolen. This wouldn't have been that interesting to us, but!” She jabbed her finger into the air excitedly. “He happened to also mention that a strange pattern had been burned on the floor of the field office.”

“Oh, oh!” Dirk thrust his hand into the air. Todd leaned over and pushed it down. “Does this pattern happen to look anything like the ones at our murder scenes?”

“You got it! Once I got a picture of the pattern at the field office, I asked for a list of their employees. And would you guess it, the secretary that worked that evening was named Suzanne Boreton?”

Everyone shared a moment to digest this information, smiles breaking out around the room.

“It gets even better,” Farah said, as she changed the photo on the screen to a close-up of Suzanne Boreton's work ID badge. The picture showed a mousy, middle-aged woman with blonde hair. “When I looked up Suzie's history, it turns out she went to the same high school as several of our victims.”

Todd whooped. “Please tell me we have a search warrant.”

“We have a warrant,” Farah confirmed.

Talk after that quickly devolved into making plans for Suzie's pick-up and questioning, along with the search of her property and new lines of inquiry to begin. As they left the conference room to split up into their new tasks, Panto lingered for a moment to wait for Silas.

“Hey,” Silas said with a small smile as they stood closer than was necessary, even in the narrow hallway. “Can you believe it?”

“Can I believe that Farah single-handedly cracked our case?” Panto asked and Silas laughed.

“Okay, fair. If anyone was going to do it, it would be her.”

Panto let his fingers brush against the back of Silas's hand, who linked their pinkies briefly before letting go. “So, the next time we get a breather...dinner at my place? I promised to show you that I really can cook.”

Silas tilted his head teasingly. “I'll believe it when I see it.”

“Fantastic,” Panto said with a grin, “it's a date.”


End file.
